ELECTIONS are over and the country awaits the oath of office of the elected President and Vice President of the Republic of the Philippines on June 30.
Looking back to the elections, during the Commonwealth Period in 1935, the President of the Revolutionary Government Emilio Aguinaldo, considered a hero, lost overwhelmingly to Manuel Quezon.
Was Aguinaldo the hero that he was esteemed to be or actually a villain…a zero?
History tells us that when the war broke out between Spain and the United States in April 1898, Aguinaldo made arrangements with the U.S. consuls in Hong Kong and Singapore and with Commodore George Dewey to return from exile to fight against Spain.
The June 12 Independence Day we celebrated a few days ago dates back to the time on June 12, 1898, when Aguinaldo proclaimed the independence of the Philippine Islands from Spain, hoisted the national flag, introduced a national anthem, and ordered a public reading of the declaration of independence.
Who was Emilio Aguinaldo? He was the first and only president of the First Philippine Republic, or Malolos Republic. He signed the Pact of Biak-na-Bato, creating a truce between the Spanish and Philippine revolutionaries and was known as the President of the Revolutionary Government.
He led the Philippines in the Spanish-Philippine War and the American-Philippine War. He was the youngest president to take office at age 28 and the longest-lived president, passing away at 94 in 1965.
Aguinaldo, realizing that the United States would not accept immediate and complete independence for the Philippines, organized a revolution against American rule that resulted in three years of bloody guerrilla warfare. He was captured on March 23, 1901. He took an oath of allegiance to the United States and issued a peace proclamation on April 19. Aguinaldo then retired to a private life.
In September 11, 1935, Aguinaldo ran for president of the Philippine Commonwealth against Manuel Quezon and Bishop Gregorio Aglipay of the Philippine Independent Church. Aguinaldo lost miserably to Quezon with Aglipay as a poor third.
How could one fabled to have led the country against Spain and then again against the Americas lose by a landslide?
When I was in school learning the history of the Philippines, I never even heard of the assassinations concocted by Aguinaldo. It was only when I saw “Heneral Luna” that there were insinuations of his massacre.
Apparently, years prior to 1935, the loudest whispers were on the murders of Andres Bonifacio and his brother Procopio and General Antonio Luna. Furthermore, there was the “bribe” supposedly received by Aguinaldo from Spain.
The film “Heneral Luna” heavily implied that Aguinaldo ordered the killing of the general. Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio “Jun” Aguinaldo Abaya, a descendant of Emilio Aguinaldo, vehemently denies his great grandfather’s participation in the crime.
In a newspaper clipping, the San Francisco Call, news came out on June 14, 1898 blaming Aguinaldo for the murder. Aguinaldo formed an investigative commission, but instead of running after Luna’s killers, the commission declared the killers, including Aguinaldo, innocent of the crime. Blame rested on Luna’s fiery temperament. Aguinaldo to suppress any retaliation from Luna’s faithful men had them arrested, tortured and killed.
Up to his death in 1964, Aguinaldo refused to accept responsibility for Luna’s death, however, in a letter verified as authentic by Teodoro Agoncillo and published in his book, “Revolt of the Masses,” Aguinaldo stated that he ordered the execution of the Bonifacio brothers. He explained that initially his orders were for their banishment, but he was prevailed upon by his generals, Piodel Pilar and Mariano Noriel, members of his Council of War to change the order to execution.
Aguinaldo was young, around 28 or 29 at the time, although great in the battlefield, but a newbie in politics. Per his letter, it was his inner circle of “friends” and advisers, who convinced him to have the Supremo killed. He was a threat to his life and the revolution. If the charge is accountability, then he is guilty by all accounts as he could have stopped it, but did not.
When Aguinaldo lost the 1935 elections, he protested, believing that the elections were rigged, in Quezon’s favor. He must have set the precedent of defeat in nobility. No losers…just cheated! His supporters even planned to disrupt the inauguration and assassinate the winners but the plans were not carried out. Oh my! This sounds familiar!
After the Japanese invasion of the Philippines in 1941, Aguinaldo once again fell into disgrace. He became known as the First Filipino Quisling. A quisling is a traitor. During the Japanese occupation, he cooperated with the new rulers.
In a radio announcement, he appealed for the surrender of the American and Filipino forces on Bataan. His claim for collaboration with the Japanese was to end the suffering and deaths of his countrymen. He was arrested but was later freed in a general amnesty.
History has a way with dissecting rumors into facts. The whispers, the innuendos have become realities substantiated with evidence.
Was Aguinaldo a real hero or a scheming narcissist who was consumed by his ego and bartered the country at every opportunity to save his skin?
With the advent of social media, it will not take generations to ferret out the truth. I wonder how the latter day politicians will be remembered when all the skeletons in the closet surface.
Aguinaldo is a reminder that when you have been given the people’s mandate, overwhelmingly or by a margin, your duty is to serve the country and its people and not yourself!